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Manufacturers in capital-intensive industries are being pressured by global competition, tariffs, and procurement practices. At the same time, B2B buyers increasingly expect a digital purchasing experience that mirrors the speed and simplicity of consumer platforms. Dealers, distributors, and agents resist any initiative they perceive as disintermediation. And in the background, a growing share of aftermarket demand is migrating to non-genuine and grey-market parts, promoted through sophisticated online channels.

At the Parts & After Sales Business Platform 2026 – Power of 50, Kamal Kirpalani of Mirakl explored how these pressures strike at the core of where value is created and captured in industrial businesses, the aftermarket. 

Margin pressure at the core, margin resilience at the edge

Margins on core equipment are under sustained pressure, while aftermarket and spare parts remain structurally more profitable.

Intense competition in finished goods, particularly from low-cost producers, limits pricing power on capital equipment. At the same time, procurement practices have become more disciplined and comparison-driven, making large deals harder to defend on price. Even external factors such as tariffs often cannot be fully passed through to customers.

Spare parts and consumables, especially proprietary or technically specific components, continue to hold stronger margins. This creates a growing imbalance in the profit mix, with aftermarket contributing a larger share of overall profitability over time.

This dynamic is often compared to a razor-and-blades model: equipment is increasingly treated as the entry point, while recurring parts and service carry much of the long-term value.

The strategic implication is not only about margin distribution, but also about control. As value shifts toward the installed base, the key question becomes whether manufacturers can maintain their position in the ongoing lifecycle, or whether competitors will begin to capture parts of that recurring value stream.

The rising consumer-grade expectation in B2B buying

B2B purchasing behaviour is changing faster than many industrial organisations have adapted to.

Customers increasingly expect to self-serve, identify a part, confirm availability and price, and place an order digitally without intermediaries. Traditional workflows, such as email requests, quotation cycles, manual part identification, are increasingly seen as slow and inefficient. Yet satisfaction with existing B2B digital purchasing experiences remains low.

This gap is reinforced by a generational shift. Many buyers now benchmark professional tools against consumer platforms they use daily. When consumer experiences offer instant search, transparent pricing, and one-click ordering, legacy industrial processes feel fragmented by comparison.

This has caused the consumerisation of B2B expectations. It does not mean industrial companies need to operate like retailers, but it does mean that buyers no longer distinguish between consumer and professional standards for digital ease, speed, and transparency.

Organisations that fail to close this gap risk introducing friction precisely at the point where customers expect simplicity.

Partner protection versus digital progress

Many manufacturers facing these pressures might instinctively consider opening a direct online parts store. Yet for businesses that operate via dealer, distributor, or agent networks, this option triggers a second major tension.

Dealers themselves are under pressure. They, too, need to rely more on spare parts to maintain profitability and are being asked by end customers to provide a better digital experience. Any OEM-led e-commerce initiative that appears to sell over their heads is therefore seen as a threat to their margin and customer relationships.

At the same time, dealers often lack the investment capacity or digital expertise to build robust, modern e-commerce capabilities on their own. As a result, they increasingly ask manufacturers not only to refrain from direct competition, but to actively help them deliver better online journeys to their shared customers.

This creates a dilemma. If manufacturers do nothing, they miss the opportunity to protect and grow their aftermarket share. If they launch direct channels that are not aligned with dealer economics, they risk channel conflict and resistance. Any sustainable strategy must therefore reconcile end-customer expectations with dealer interests instead of pitting them against each other.

Non-genuine parts and digital-native competition

A further complication comes from the rapid proliferation of non-genuine parts. In some mature industries, such as automotive, estimates suggest that a majority of spare parts purchased by end customers may be non-original. Even in highly technical and proprietary segments, it has become easier to find alternative or counterfeit components across major marketplaces and regional platforms.

Simple online searches on multi-vendor platforms often surface a surprising number of listings for specialised parts. These sellers have no stake in the OEM–dealer relationship. Their sole focus is capturing demand through:

• Attractive pricing relative to OEM parts.
• Strong online visibility and discovery.
• Frictionless purchase journeys.

For end customers under cost pressure, and habituated to buying online, these offers can appear appealing, particularly when the OEM makes it hard to identify or buy the correct part. The risk is that non-genuine suppliers become the digital default for aftermarket demand, eroding OEM share, compromising warranty and safety, and undermining long-term service relationships.

Reshaping value capture

These pressures form two opposing forces that converge on the same outcome: shrinking aftermarket profitability.

Demand-side and strategic pull

Manufacturers face the need to compensate for declining margins on finished goods by growing aftermarket revenue. At the same time, customers increasingly expect spare parts to be as easy to find, price, and purchase as consumer goods, with seamless digital access and self-service options.

Channel and competitive pushback

Dealer networks resist digital models that appear to bypass their role and threaten their margin. At the same time, non-genuine suppliers are already meeting customer expectations with frictionless online experiences, unconstrained by traditional channel structures.

Manufacturers must grow parts revenue in a more competitive, more digital environment, customers expect simpler access than legacy systems provide, dealers seek to protect their position, and third parties are actively capturing unmet demand.

If left unresolved, these forces lead to a steady shift of aftermarket value away from OEMs and authorised networks towards alternative providers, while core equipment margins continue to come under pressure.

From dealer locator to digital ecosystem

Aftermarket digitalisation is best understood as a staged progression.

Level 1: Dealer referral

At the most basic level, manufacturers provide a dealer locator. Customers are directed to a local partner and must contact them directly for availability, pricing, and ordering. This creates friction for customers, adds manual work for dealers, and does little to support digital demand or parts visibility.

Level 2: Digital catalogues (no transaction)

The next step introduces online parts catalogues with exploded diagrams, part numbers, and technical information. This improves accuracy and speeds up identification, but the transaction still happens offline. Customers cannot complete the purchase, and OEMs gain limited insight into demand.

Level 3: Dealer-fulfilled e-commerce

Customers can search, select, and pay for parts online. Orders are routed to dealers for fulfilment, preserving their commercial role. Models vary from single-dealer assignment to multi-dealer visibility. In both cases, the customer gets a seamless digital journey, while dealers benefit from structured, incremental orders. Where stock is limited, drop-shipping models allow OEMs to ship directly while still routing revenue through the dealer.

Level 4: Integrated dealer ecosystem

The platform expands beyond OEM parts to include the dealer’s broader assortment—accessories, consumables, and complementary products. The OEM platform becomes a shared storefront. Dealers avoid duplicating systems, and customers gain a single entry point for all related needs, while OEMs retain visibility and influence over transactions.

Level 5: Global scale

Many deployments remain confined to flagship markets. Yet aftermarket value is often distributed globally, with smaller markets collectively matching or exceeding top-tier ones. A scalable global platform enables consistency in customer experience, data quality, and operational efficiency across regions.

Level 6: AI-enabled service and ordering

AI tools are increasingly being used to diagnose issues, interpret error messages, and suggest fixes. Without OEM integration, these systems risk directing users toward generic or non-genuine parts. With integration, they can become powerful entry points into the aftermarket ecosystem.

Two capabilities are key:

• Structuring product and parts data so it can be interpreted through natural language.
• Embedding AI assistants into OEM platforms to guide users from symptom to diagnosis to correct part selection.

This links troubleshooting directly to transaction, transforming fragmented manual processes into guided, self-service journeys while keeping demand within the OEM–dealer network.

Changing the channel dynamics from conflict to alignment

If this full maturity path is pursued, the dynamics among OEMs, dealers, customers, and non-genuine competitors change significantly.

Dealers no longer see the OEM’s e-commerce initiative as a threat, because it does not bypass them commercially. Rather, it equips them. The platform channels incremental business to the dealer, reduces their administrative workload, and provides a digital capability they might otherwise struggle to develop.

End customers receive a buying experience that is comparable to what they are used to in consumer markets, but with the added reassurance of genuine, warranted parts and accurate technical fit.

OEMs can protect and grow their share of aftermarket demand, improve visibility on parts flows, and reduce the leakage to non-genuine alternatives that position themselves primarily through digital convenience and price.

Importantly, this platform-based model also opens up additional revenue streams beyond traditional parts margins. Manufacturers can charge platform or marketplace fees on accessories and third-party products sold via their infrastructure. Over time, they can introduce sponsored visibility or preferential placement for certain sellers or products, similar to advertising models used on major marketplaces.

The key performance indicator shifts from narrow share of wallet on OEM parts to total gross merchandise value (GMV) flowing through the aftermarket ecosystem orchestrated by the manufacturer.

The cost of others selling your blades

Despite the strategic importance, it is easy for industrial organisations to defer action. IT roadmaps are full. Resources are constrained. AI, e-commerce, and dealer integration can feel like topics that can always wait another budget cycle.

The underlying forces, however, are not likely to recede. Customer expectations for digital self-service will continue to rise. Non-genuine suppliers will keep investing in online visibility and frictionless purchase experiences. The more profitable OEM parts become, the more attractive they appear as targets for imitation or substitution.

The risk is that manufacturers gradually end up in a position where they continue to sell the original equipment, while an increasing portion of the profitable business is captured by others. In a world where finished goods are already margin-constrained, losing control over spare parts revenue is not a viable long-term scenario.

Strategic implications for industrial leaders

Several implications emerge for senior decision-makers in manufacturing and aftermarket:

• Digital aftermarket transformation is primarily a channel strategy issue, not just an e-commerce project. Success depends on aligning with dealer incentives. Solutions that strengthen partners tend to scale, while those that bypass them face resistance.
• Transparency on pricing and availability is becoming a baseline expectation. Limiting visibility may preserve short-term leverage, but it increases friction and drives customers toward competitors or third-party platforms.
• Discoverability is shifting in an AI-driven environment. Traditional search optimisation is no longer enough. Product data must be structured so AI systems can connect real-world service problems with the correct genuine parts.
• Global scalability is critical. Limiting advanced aftermarket capabilities to a few flagship markets leaves significant value untapped and reduces visibility of overall demand patterns.
• Timing is a key risk factor. As digital habits form around non-OEM channels, they become harder to reverse, making early positioning increasingly important.

Those that act early can position themselves not just as equipment suppliers, but as orchestrators of the entire lifecycle value chain around their installed base. Those that wait risk discovering, too late, that while their name is still on the machine, much of the profit from keeping it running has quietly moved elsewhere.